Crimea Satellite Photos Show Mystery Ship After Russian Corvette Destroyed

Satellite images appear to show a mystery Russian ship where Ukrainian naval drones destroyed the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets near annexed Crimea last week.

The Crimean Wind Telegram channel published two satellite images on Thursday of an "unknown ship" that was discovered in the harbor of Lake Donuzlav. "Presumably, this is a brother of the sunken Ivanovets," it said.

The images show a ship which measures 56 meters long (184 feet), "which exactly corresponds to the size of the Project 1241 'Molniya-1' missile corvettes," the channel assessed.

The Ivanovets was the 26th Russian ship successfully struck by Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, according to Independent Russian news outlet The Insider.

Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, told The War Zone that the vessel was struck by six MAGURA V5 sea drones that "sent it to the bottom of the Black Sea."

The Black Sea Fleet has been targeted by Ukraine as it seeks to reverse Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which serves as Moscow's central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

The Ivanovets was sunk by Ukrainian naval drones on February 1.

"Traces of it in the sea are not visible in the photographs," the Crimean Wind channel said.

Ukraine released dramatic footage that showed a "trap" its forces set for the Ivanovets during a nighttime operation.

Budanov said the ship's hull sustained "six direct hits by naval drones."

"As a result of the damage, the ship rolled astern and sank. According to preliminary data, the search-and-rescue operation conducted by the enemy was not successful," he said.

"The 56-meter-long vessel was caught in a trap 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from the entrance to Lake Donuzlav, near the village of Okunevka, in the Black Sea region," the VChK-OGPU outlet, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, reported of the attack on the Ivanovets.

Multiple casualties have been sustained by Russia's Black Sea Fleet throughout the war. Its flagship, Moskva, was attacked and sunk in April 2022. In September 2023, a missile attack by Ukraine on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol reportedly killed a number of leading officers and destroyed a Russian submarine.

Kyiv said this week that it has destroyed a third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet since the war began.

Ukraine has so far "disabled" about 33 percent of the fleet's warships, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Center for Strategic Communications (StratCom).

"According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our military disabled 24 Russian ships and one submarine," it said in a post on Telegram.

"According to data from open sources, as of the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation consisted of 74 warships," StratCom added. "Aggression against Ukraine is harmful to your fleet."

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